Action, Consciousness and Theory of Mind: Children's Ability to Coordinate Story Characters' Actions and Thoughts

Pelletier, Janette; Astington, Janet Wilde

doi:10.1207/s15566935eed1501_1

Cited by 93 publications

(42 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…This result is consistent with findings from recent longitudinal studies that have documented significant relations between individual differences in preschool theory of mind and (a) children's general level of academic achievement (Garner & Waajid, 2008;Izard et al, 2001) and (b) more specific school competences such as letter knowledge (Blair & Razza, 2007), self-monitoring in cognitive activities (Meichenbaum & Biemiller, 1998), scientific thinking (Kuhn & Pearsall, 2000), and narrative understanding (Pelletier & Astington, 2004).…”

Section: Preschool Theory Of Mind Predicts First-grade Teachers' Ratisupporting

confidence: 90%

Does sensitivity to criticism mediate the relationship between theory of mind and academic achievement?

Lecce

Caputi

Hughes

2011

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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Section: Preschool Theory Of Mind Predicts First-grade Teachers' Ratisupporting

confidence: 90%

Does sensitivity to criticism mediate the relationship between theory of mind and academic achievement?

Lecce

Caputi

Hughes

2011

Journal of Experimental Child Psychology

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“…For instance, theory of mind skills in young children are positively associated with teacher ratings of social competence (Cassidy et al 2003;Lalonde and Chandler 1995) and the coordination of story characters' actions and thoughts (Pelletier and Astington 2004).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Interactive Links Between Theory of Mind, Peer Victimization, and Reactive and Proactive Aggression

Renouf

Brendgen

Séguin

et al. 2010

J Abnorm Child Psychol

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This study investigated the relation between theory of mind and reactive and proactive aggression, respectively, as well as the moderating role of peer victimization in this context. The 574 participants were drawn from a longitudinal study of twins. Theory of mind was assessed before school entry, when participants were 5 years old. Reactive and proactive aggression as well as peer victimization were assessed a year later in kindergarten. Results from multilevel regression CIHR Author Manuscript CIHR Author Manuscript CIHR Author Manuscriptanalyses revealed that low theory of mind was related to a high level of reactive aggression, but only in children who experienced average to high levels of peer victimization. In contrast, a high theory of mind was related to a high level of proactive aggression. Again, this relation was especially pronounced in children who experienced high levels of peer victimization. These findings challenge the social skills deficit view of aggression and provide support for a multidimensional perspective of aggressive behavior. KeywordsTheory of mind; Reactive and proactive aggression; Peer victimizationIn the study of aggressive behavior a fundamental distinction is made between reactive aggression and proactive aggression, which refer to two different underlying functions of aggression (Day, Bream and Paul 1992;Dodge and Coie 1987;Schwartz et al. 1998).Reactive aggression is defined as a retaliatory response to a real or perceived threat or provocation. It is associated with the frustration theory of aggression (Berkowitz 1989) and is accompanied by an activation of the autonomous system (Hubbard et al. 2002). In contrast, proactive aggression is considered a non-provoked behavior that is motivated by the desire for personal gains or the domination of others (Vitaro and Brendgen 2005). As an organized and planned behavior, proactive aggression is related to the anticipation of a positive outcome of the aggressive behavior (Dodge et al. 1997). Although studies usually report a high correlation between reactive and proactive aggression (mean r=0.68; Card and Little 2006), factor analyses and meta-analyses provide clear evidence for the validity of the distinction between the two functions of aggression (Card and Little 2006;Crick and Dodge 1996;McAuliffe et al. 2007;Poulin and Boivin 2000;Vitaro et al. 1998). As will be discussed in more detail below, evidence also suggests that these two functions of aggressive behavior are differentially related to social cognitive skills, particularly with respect to the decoding of social stimuli (Crick and Dodge 1996;Dodge et al. 1997;Dodge and Coie 1987;Hubbard et al. 2001;Schippel et al. 2003). The present study examines a specific and as yet unstudied aspect of decoding-related social cognitive skills, namely theory of mind, in relation to proactive and reactive aggression. The Role of Theory of Mind in Social BehaviorTheory of mind implies the capacity to attribute mental states to the self and to others in order to explain and predic...

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“…For example, in English speaking children, Gernsbacher, Hallada, and Robertson (1998) demonstrated that readers require high levels of meta-cognitive understanding to make inferences about a story character's emotional states. Pelletier & Astington (2004) reasoned that understanding mental states may facilitate story comprehension because it leads to an awareness of the intentions of both the characters and the author. In addition, they suggested that it may foster children's critical thinking and prompt them to consider alternative views and to make judgments about important issues, such as morality.…”

Section: Story Comprehensionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relations among children’s theory of mind, family factors, language development, and story comprehension in L1 and L2 preschoolers

Markel¹,

Major²,

Pelletier³

2012

IJRSP

Self Cite

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This study examined the relation of family factors, vocabulary, and reading skills to theory of mind development and fables comprehension in children who spoke English as a first language (L1) and children who spoke English as a second language (L2). These factors were examined in 170 preschool children who spoke Arabic, Chinese, Gujarati, Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Vietnamese, Urdu, English, or a European language as a first language. All children were being schooled in English. General vocabulary more than any other factor predicted how well L1 and L2 learners performed on theory of mind and fables comprehension tasks. Children's reading skills contributed to fables understanding for L1 but not for L2 children.For all children, sibling status influenced vocabulary skills. Parental education was related to children's vocabulary and reading skills in the L1 group only. The results of this study provide support for the importance of considering the differential needs of first and second language learners.

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Action, Consciousness and Theory of Mind: Children's Ability to Coordinate Story Characters' Actions and Thoughts

Cited by 93 publications

References 23 publications

Does sensitivity to criticism mediate the relationship between theory of mind and academic achievement?

Does sensitivity to criticism mediate the relationship between theory of mind and academic achievement?

Interactive Links Between Theory of Mind, Peer Victimization, and Reactive and Proactive Aggression

Relations among children’s theory of mind, family factors, language development, and story comprehension in L1 and L2 preschoolers

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